There are times when I don’t seem to have, “the vision”, anymore and with this comes the depression that can plague you and drag you down with disbelief in your work and in yourself.
I have photographic skills. I’ve learned the trade with a degree in photojournalism, working for newspapers, freelancing to magazines and various book publishers. I learned enough to have expressed those skills through teaching photography at a University and since that time I gathered those proficiencies and had a twenty year run with my own publishing company.
Color Pallet - 11x17 Giclee Print
But just as the day I was mesmerized by the click of a shutter on my first camera many years ago, the excitement is sometimes followed by the anxiety and self judgment of myself and the success of the image.
Sometimes, I feel that I am just playing with the, “wanna be”, thoughts of being a photographer, even though I have been driven’ to the viewfinder almost all my life.
Now my work in fine art photography is more conceptualized, sometimes only seconds before it happens but it can flow freely.
I have learned that it is the process of making images that counts. It is what shapes us as artists. What happens with the final image is only important to the viewer. Our art is made through our private vision and the execution that gathered all the elements necessary to communicate this vision to another person.
Garden Gate - 11x17 Giclee Print
I still get the anxiety rushes sometimes but I have learned to accept myself and in doing so my vision and art has grown.
The creation of images is always at work in one’s subconscious. We feed it through the action of doing. Reading, viewing other artwork, studying, adopting and applying what you like and works for you leads to your distinctive style. The work itself develops who we are.
I have taken and at times created tens of thousands of images over the years. Many others were thrown in the trash seconds after I saw the developed film or deleted after capture. Each of those images was an expression of who I was at that time.
Dreaming Bamboo - 11x17 Giclee Print
Unhappy times created mediocre photographs. Depressive times left me without expression. Eventually the desire to communicate lured me back and after each personal pitfall the quality of my art grew and the vision was easier to grasp the next time around.
My point here is that one must keep working developing new image after new image, trying one thing after another with a belief that a breakthrough will come. Believing in yourself is key yet it is the hardest hurdle to overcome in the making of one’s art and the discovery of who you are.
Sometimes it will take a hundred or more failed photos to pull yourself through but faith that the next plateau is out there and you can get to it will make you art soar.
It is not an easy task but to some the drive just will not let go.
Related post:
http://myphotovisions.wordpress.com/sense-what-the-landscape-is-telling-you/
Photographs used in this post are copyrighted by Wayne Scherr, Range of Vision Photography, 2010, All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited without the written permission of Wayne Scherr, Range of Vision Photography. My image catalog can be viewed at http://www.rangeofvisionphotos.com. You can contact me through this blog or email at: wayne@rangeofvisionphotos.com
